“Vanmam”… So indifferently made, it’s shocking

After watching Soodhu Kavvum, I wrote, “Vijay Sethupathi, the poster boy of this cinema, was welcomed in his first scene with cheers and claps usually reserved for mass heroes making their entry. It’s the sweetest sound I’ve heard in years.” But then, those are just A-centre cheers and claps, and if we know anything about our heroes, it’s that they like the rest of the alphabet too. The B-centres. The C-centres. And as you cannot lure those audiences with films like Soodhu Kavvum, you clamber on board an MRTS (‘Mass’ Route To Success) vehicle and head to the sickle-wielding hinterlands. It isn’t surprising – just a little sad. There have been actors before Vijay Sethupathi who’ve bought a one-way ticket for this journey, and there will be actors down the line who’ll do the same thing. But with him, there’s a wee sense of betrayal, that’s all. You act in back-to-back films (Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom, Soodhu Kavvum) that make us think you’re part of the counterculture. You’re part of a revolution. You’re Che Guevara. And then, you do a Vanmam and tell us we’re fools for even believing there was a cause, that it’s better to be a face on a giant cutout than a face on a college kid’s T-shirt. Lesson learnt.

Still, there’s a difference between “going commercial” and doing a Vanmam (directed by Jai Krishna), which is just about the vilest thing I’ve sat through in recent times. Consider the scene where one of the hero’s friends is murdered by a rival gang. The man is biking down a road near the train tracks, and he sees goons on bikes coming in the opposite direction. One of them kicks the man, who goes flying and hits a train and ends up a blood-spattered heap. The goons walk up to him to make sure he’s dead. He’s drawing his least breaths, and he asks for water. One of the goons pees on him. The scene isn’t funny. It isn’t shocking. It isn’t cruel. It’s – like the rest of the film – nothing. We feel nothing, not even revulsion. Vanmam is that indifferently made.

But how do these films get made, in the first place? I think it’s because the “one-line,” as the simple summary is called, sounds good. The one-line, here, is that two friends (Vijay Sethupathi and Kreshna) become enemies after a killing, and one of them is left with a heavy burden on his conscience. Not bad. But what about the second line? And the third line? And the rest of the lines that go on to make the screenplay? The emotional beats are buried so deep they’re hardly discernible, and what’s on the surface is a generic mix of love (Sunaina plays the love interest) and drama and sentiment and action. There’s not a thing that’s new. You’ve heard of the phrase “going through the motions.” Now you can see it. Just one request, though. It’s inevitable, in these films, that you have all these men with hoicked-up dhotis, but can we not shoot them from low angles? Watching something like this is punishment enough without making it seem like a two-and-a-half hour underwear commercial.

“Just one request, though. It’s inevitable, in these films, that you have all these men with hoicked-up dhotis, but can we not shoot them from low angles? Watching something like this is punishment enough without making it seem like a two-and-a-half hour underwear commercial”.

Oh yes, that phrase “going through the motions”, was distinctly visible in Vijay Sethupathi’s pre-release interviews. IAB, Rummy and then this. His next movie’s title summarises his choice of this route downhill – “Naanum Rowdydhaan”!

Oh….!!! I couldn’t agree with you more……. But there’s no need for you to feel betrayed or let down as the counterculture is being spearheaded by lots of new directors and not Vijay Sethupathi……
Especially all the new-gen directors who have come through the nalaya iyakkunar show……..

They are definitely trying to make an indelible mark on Tamil cinema and inspite of the presence of Vijay Sethupathi nkpk, Soodhu Kavvum, pizza are movies made by directors with an vision and not just run of

If acting in one single masala flick is considered betrayal, then we should probably have given up on Kamal Haasan long back, when he made movies like Sagalakalavalavan, Kadhal Parisu et all. An actor has to make a living, doesn’t mean he is going to always make the same kind of movies.

udhaysankar: Oh, I agree those were primarily directors’ films, but VS kinda lucked into a pop-culture moment and he seemed to be in the midst of all those films — and now that we’re seeing *his* choice of films, we’re getting an idea where he seems to be heading or where his interests really lie.

Viswaram: I agree. Had I been writing reviews then, I’d have probably expressed similar disappointment about Kamal in those films.

But that said, there are more filmmakers today whom you CAN work with in the commercial mode and YET sneak in a bit of art. Hence the disappointment. It’s not the fact that this is a masala film. It’s that it’s a film made with so little effort or application and VS is literally sleepwalking through it.

I don’t understand why actors are credited so much for the quality of films.

Are we saying that an Actor is responsible for bringing revolution or change to state of films?? I would argue that its the directors that are critical. Actors/Singer are like courier delivery boys. They just take the product to the door. The real creators (directors/composers) deserve all credit and blame.

Vijay Sethupathi deserves less credit for Soodhu Kavvum. All credit should go to the director. Similarly in this case, Jai Krishna deserves brick bats

semainacropolis: You’re right, of course. It is the directors that should make the difference, that we should be holding up (or down).

But that’s a logical point, and responding to cinema isn’t always a logical thing. Sometimes an actor makes you think that he stands for something, that he’s choosing his scripts a certain way, that he cares about cinema as art — and you can end up thinking that that actor’s films are going to have at least a certain quality. That’s what I’m talking about here.

His performances in nkpk, SD, pizza always remind me of the present day dhanush, “not playing straight to the gallery, yet not entirely disappearing in an role” as you had described in maryan review. And also I have never seen him so far in” Look here I’m acting I’m acting sort of moments”. He has the ability to skillfully underplay an role, yet not making them look dull….

Now! Now! There is no need to write off VS as yet… If memory serves, Dhanush went through a truly ghastly phase where he tried to get himself branded as the ‘Tamilian Bruce Lee’ or something equally revolting, before he found his footing. Vijay made some truly awful commercial trash before deciding to make films that were only mildly offensive. We really ought to give his namesake some latitude, after all he did appear in 3 of the ballsiest films ever. I see a kickass comeback film in the offing, hopefully with Nalan Kumarasamy at the helm 😊

“There have been actors before Vijay Sethupathi who’ve bought a one-way ticket for this journey, and there will be actors down the line who’ll do the same thing. But with him, there’s a wee sense of betrayal, that’s all.

VS now, seems to be just one actor who was in the right place at the right time. We thought he was a little more than that and it appears otherwise.

On a related note, I’m not sure if comparing/invoking Kamal Hassan’s sakakala vallavan is the right thing to do here – I think the disappointment comes not from VS doing a rural-masala film, but from the fact that the film was made indifferently with little care to the craft. You may love or hate the film, but you can never categorize Sakalakala Vallan or for that matter any Kamal Hassan as being ‘indifferent’.

“You act in back-to-back films (Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom, Soodhu Kavvum) that make us think you’re part of the counterculture. You’re part of a revolution. You’re Che Guevara. And then, you do a Vanmam and tell us we’re fools for even believing there was a cause, that it’s better to be a face on a giant cutout than a face on a college kid’s T-shirt. Lesson learnt.”

Mr.BR, this clearly summarizes the kind of expectation you had on Vijay Sethupathi and how let down you feel now.

Especally – “You’re part of a revolution. You’re Che Guevara.” – i, really, can feel the pain or how agonizing you would have felt after watching this movie. Am with you.

TV serials are better than this movie called vanmam. Where is Vijay Sethupathi? How could he able to accept such a movie? Rerecording and dubbing, acting, music etc all below average. The only actor, father of Vijay Sethubathi (Old man) has acted above average (better than vijay sethubathi) in the movie. It will run successfully at Z center (if that center exists!).